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U.S. Supreme Court backs Christian group in Boston flag flap -Breaking

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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO A view of Washington’s Supreme Court Building, U.S.A, 26 November 2021. REUTERS/Will Dunham

By Andrew Chung

(Reuters) -Boston refused to fly a flag with the cross image at City Hall under a program that allowed private organizations to use the flagpole for events held in the plaza beneath. This was a violation of the freedom of speech rights of a Christian organization.

A lower court had ruled that Camp Constitution and Harold Shurtleff were not in violation of their First Amendment rights. The 9-0 ruling overturned the decision. The case was supported by President Joe Biden and his administration.

Boston’s flag-raising campaign was intended to promote tolerance and diversity among its diverse communities. Boston said in rejecting Camp Constitution that the raising of the cross flag might violate the First Amendment, which prohibits government endorsement of any particular religion.

Boston ended the program in October after the litigation. This was to prevent the city from being forced to promote messages that are contrary to its beliefs. Boston claimed that it could be forced to display flags that promote division and intolerance by requiring it open its flagpole to all comers.

A 6-3 majority conservative Supreme Court justice has taken a wide view of religious freedom and is increasingly open to the argument that governments have shown hostility towards religion.

Biden’s office argued that Boston had treated the flagpole like a platform that anyone could use, and thus discriminated against Christians based on their viewpoint.

Boston allowed private organizations to raise flags using three flagpoles located on City Hall’s plaza. All 284 requests Boston received between 2005 and 2017 were approved before it rejected Camp Constitution. While the majority of flags came from foreign countries, there was also one that commemorated LGBT Pride in Boston.

It was up for debate whether the flagpole had become a public venue that could afford free speech protections according to the First Amendment. Boston argued it was just a conduit for state speech and not worthy of such protection.

Camp Constitution sued for the rejection of its 2018 mission statement, which stated that it was “to increase understanding of Judeo-Christian moral legacy” as well “free enterprise.” Liberty Counsel was the conservative Christian legal firm that represented it in the case.

Camp Constitution’s website contains materials that question the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. It claims the U.S. Capitol attack last year was actually a cover for massive 2020 election fraud. The site also calls Japan’s attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and al Qaeda attacks on the United States, Sept. 11, 2001 “carefully orchestrated false Flags.”

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Boston’s 1st U.S.

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